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Published: November 3rd 2007
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Museum
Playing the Bells... We had visitors in town for a few days toward the end of October. Augie's Asian Term was in Wuhan from Oct. 24th- Oct. 27th. It was so much fun to meet up with some old friends and make some new ones.
Nick and I met all of the theatre folk at their hotel on Wednesday night. They were staying at the Holiday Inn, so we tried to copy down the characters and say the words for hotel across the river. The cab driver took us in and got right on his cell phone. I have picked up enough Chinese to know that he got on and said that he had foreigners trying to get to a hotel. So, he really had no idea where we were trying to go, but he was willing to help us. We got there and took the elevator up to Katie's room on the 9th floor. We knocked. And knocked again. No answer. We went downstairs only to realize that the group from Augie wasn't there. Apparently there are two Holiday Inns in Wuhan. They helped us catch a cab to the correct hotel and (as we laughed at ourselves) we swore to never
Me and Ma lao shi
She is one of my favorite people ever. speak of our blunder again (oops).
We visited for a bit on Wednesday night and then the whole Augie group came to the CCNU campus on Thursday to sit in on our classes and go on tours with our students. Even though I don't usually have class on Thursdays, I taught my sophomore Class 3 that morning. They were great! They were so excied to meet the Americans. They asked great questions and actually answered all of the questions that the Augie students had. After class, we all paraded over to the square where we were going to pair up Chinese students and American students for a campus tour and lunch. It was ANARCHY!! We all told our students that if they wanted to give a tour, they could meet us around 11:45 and we would pair them up. Three years ago, when I was here as a student, there were barely enough Chinese students for each of the American students. I had a private tour. This time, there was a sea of Chinese students all eager to make friends. We just started assigning groups of students to each Augie student. Finally, we got everyone on their way. After
lunch and the tours, all of us teachers tagged along as the group went to the Hubei Provincial Museum. We got to see a really fascinating performance of ancient Chinese bells. They mostly played the traditional songs that would be played for emperors and such, but they ended with a really beautiful rendition of "Ode to Joy". There was one song where a woman came out with these 10 foot long sleeves and did a dance with them. It was as thought she was ribbon dancing with her garment. I wish Jessi could have seen it, she would have loved it. After the museum, we went to dinner at the hotel, Nick and I took a nap while Katie, Kyle, Sarah Squared finished a painting for art class, then we went to God's Music Bar. It is a bar that is in an old church. We taught everyone how to play the Chinese dice games and had a good time.
On Friday, all of us teachers had lunch with the real Augie professors that were here with the group. It was so nice to chat with them about how we are doing and how much things have chaned over
the years. Norm offered to pick up the tab for the meal, so Ma lao shi told us to order up and get a ton of food. We ate our fill and swapped stories of our time in Asia to date. After dinner, we met up with the theatre folk again and headed out to Vox. After a fairly low key night, we climbed the wall (you haven't visited Wuhan/CCNU unless you have climbed the wall), and hit the hay.
The next day we took them to get something to eat at the Southeast Gate so that they could have a taste of real street food. Then we tried to get them in a cab to get back to their hotel in time to get ready for the performance at a performing arts school that night. For some reason, we could not hail a cab to save our lives! They were all full (even though it was only 3pm). When we would finally find an empty one, the driver refused us. This happened 4 or 5 times! Finally, one agreed to take them and Nick and I went back home to change so that we could meet them at
their hotel and tag along once more. We met up with Laura and Dan by 3:30ish and we had just as much trouble trying to get a cab. Until that day, we had never waited more than 5 minutes trying to pick up a cab. It was sooo frustrating. Then, Laura said that Ma lao shi had said that certain cabs can only cross certain bridges. The only ones that were stopping for us couldn't cross the bridge right by the hotel, so they wouldn't take us. We FINALLY found one that would takes us and we were off. We couldn't believe that we had been in town and taking cabs for two months and we never ran into that problem before.
We had a nice dinner and went to what we thought was the Performing Arts School. No such luck. They had moved and the Augie crew didn't get the memo. We herded back onto the buses and drove another 45 minutes out of the city to get to the performance. It was worht the extra drive. There were dancers and musicians and costumes designs. I was thoroughly entertained. There was one group that played these instruments that
looked like bamboo shingles that they clapped together in their hands. I would LOVE to learn how to do that . I saw Bai Yan, the theatre teacher who had done some workshops at Augie spring term of my sophomore year. I had dinner with her 3 years ago when I was in Wuhan with the last Asian Term. She found me as soon as we got to the school and gave me a big hug. She said that some of her students recognized me as the "Squirrel" from the video she took of our final performance while she was on campus. Nick, Katie and I are going to try to do something more with the school in theatre or dance. It would be so great to get to continue to visit and keep the arts in my daily life.
After the performance, a huge group headed back to Vox. We must have been the largest group of Westerners that place has ever seen! We crashed back at the hotel and mooched off of the delicious breakfast buffet.
It was so great to get to see everyone from Augie. It made me miss a lot of people, but
oddly enough, the weekend really made me miss the other people that I am here with. We all split up for a few days to hang out with the different people that we met on the trip. I missed them after only a few days apart. We have really become a family (for better or worse) and it was so much fun to get together for a big dinner after the Augie group left to tell stories and catch each other up on everything that happened. I was afraid that seeing so many familiar people would make me really homesick. It did a little bit, but it really helped to cement how happy I am here and how much I am enjoying my experience.
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